India’s middle and upper crust are acquiring a taste for South African wine with thousands of bottles making their way to the subcontinent as the demand grows.

Wines of South Africa, the body promoting the export of local wine, says the main potential market is India’s growing middle class with about 1.5-million Indians taking to wine drinking.

Andre Morgenthal, spokesman for Wines of South Africa, said about 700000 litres of locally produced wine was exported to India last year.

“This represents a 44% growth on 2007 figures. Morgenthal said about 20 local companies exported between 30 to 40 wine labels to India.

Morgenthal said despite the healthy growth, South African wine was not as well represented in India compared to other international markets.

“India’s main wine consuming markets are the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Goa. Other cities like Calcutta, Pune and Hyderabad are catching up. Nearly two-million people in India drink wine, with about 10% of this figure opting for wine as their preferred choice,” said Morgenthal.

Neethu Sheth, an importer of South African wine, said wine had become one of India’s drink of choice in the last three years. “Wine is quite popular and is becoming a drink of choice. With the terrorist attacks and the global downturn the consumption has reduced drastically due to the high custom duties. That inflates the price of the wine,” she said.

Source: thetimes.co.za